Super Genius’s all-Chicago produced reality series, “Garage Squad,” devoted to helping gearheads restore their cherished vintage vehicles, will premiere Friday, Aug. 1, on Velocity, a supercharged Discovery Channel entirely devoted to all things automotive. Velocity deems “Garage Squad” so good that it’s part of Velocity’s current Dream Car Week’s 14 hours of programming focusing on the most unique, beautiful and exotic vehicles. The half-hour, 10-episode series was developed and produced at Velocity’s request by eight-year old Super Genius, a hybrid advertising/entertainment shop. The partners, co-managers Bill Connell and Mat Burnett – EPs on the series — and ECD Craig Motlong are former long-time Leo Burnett executives. “We’ve had a relationship with Velocity for several years, when we turned a turned a brand initiative into a series, called ‘One of a Kind’ for the network. It’s about the early design and production of custom cars,” Connell says. (continue reading at ReelChicago).

If you’ve never driven on the salt flats of Utah and Nevada, you may not know that it’s exactly like driving on the surface of the moon. I personally managed to drive my poky little Saturn on the salt flats, taking an ill-advised shortcut, and managed to drive in a straight line, as fast as I could, for hours, in absolute silence. It is an incredible feeling of spacelessness. Nothing moves. There are no signs. You have no sense of place. You could be anywhere.

Eighty years ago, someone did the same thing, and fell in love with the feeling. In the 1930’s, automobile racing was the Wild West. Anyone could do it, anywhere, anytime. And one man, living in Utah, drove his race car out in the middle of nowhere for days at a time, which gave him time to dream.

No sudden movements.

Out of this nothingness, this unknowable void, came one of the greatest cars in history, establishing the salt flats as the world standard for land speed records. One man designed a car with a car engine powerful enough to compete against airplane engines, which most people were using at the time. One man designed a body that was aerodynamic, so that the flow of air would help it achieve his dream.

This car would become known as the Mormon Meteor, and it is one of the most important cars still in existence. It defeated cars the world over. It put Utah on the map for land-speed enthusiasts. Epic films could be written about this car. Brad Pitt could play the lead.

The premiere episodes of OOAK aired last night on Velocity. SG had an amazing amount of fun filming these unique cars and developing these OOAK stories. Watch this space, we’ll be bringing more “behind the scenes” content and an inside look at the production process.

About

Super Genius LLC is a digital media and creative incubator that excels at bringing fresh, new thinking to existing strategy as well as blank-page strategic development. Our mission is to open up unique and exciting ways of connecting brands and consumers.

"The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." William Gibson